duction underwent a most phenomenal growth, increasing nearly three times as rapidly as the area of improved land. It is evident that cereals have been occupying an increasingly prominent place in Illinois agriculture.

The relative prominence of the different crops can be measured for the dates from 1840 to 1870 only on the basis of production. Beginning with 1880, however, the census reports show the number of acres devoted to the various crops. The percentage of improved land devoted to hay and forage decreased between 1889 and 1909, and the percentage of improved land devoted to other crops decreased from 11.3 in 1899 to 9.2 in 1909.31 The percentage of improved land occupied by cereal crops in Illinois in 1879 was exceeded by the percentage in Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa; in 1889 by North Dakota and Minnesota; in 1899, by Nebraska and Minnesota; but in 1909 the percentage of improved land devoted to cereals in Illinois exceeded that of any other state.

Though data based on acreage are lacking for the period preceding the tenth census the statistics of production already cited seem to confirm the impression that the concentration on cereal-farming in Illinois received its main impetus about 1880. Up to that time the cereal productions had grown at a slower pace than that with which the improved acreage had expanded. From 1880 on, however, both acreages and productions of cereal crops have grown faster than the corresponding increase in the area of improved farm land.

A strong factor underlying the change in the direction and degree of agricultural tendencies in Illinois about 1880 is the increased cost of adding land to the farm area of the United States. The result was an increasing pressure and premium on the food-producing land of the country. The effect is seen in the acceleration given to the rise in farm property values and in the concentration on grain production on lands adapted to that branch of agriculture.

31 Census, 1910, V, 554, 556.

CHAPTER III

CHANGES IN LAND TENURE IN ILLINOIS

The early agricultural economy described in the previous chapter may be regarded as one in which there existed a heavy dependence upon timber. As late as 1850 possibly 45 per cent of the land in farms was "woodland". By 1870 the percentage of farm land classed as woodland had dropped to 20, by 1880 to less than 16, and by 1910, to 10.2 Although timber determined the desirability of a district for occupancy by pioneers, it has come to be regarded as more or less in the way, except that a small amount is desirable for use as shade, ornament and source of wood for farm purposes.

The days when the farming of the state was based upon woodland must have been characterized by a very small amount of tenant farming. Land was then plentiful not only in other parts of the continent, but even within the state itself. The land was taken up pretty generally by heads of families seeking to establish farm homes. Some renting was carried on in the

1In 1850 58.1 per cent of the farm land of Illinois was "unimproved". Certainly as much as three-fourths of this unimproved land was “woodland". The percentage of unimproved land classified as woodland in 1870 was 77.7, in 1880, 89.1 and in 1910, 70.7. The absolute figures were as follows:

Census, 1910, V, 77; and 1880, Agriculture, 3, 11.

2The original timbered area of the state is said to have comprised about 30 per cent of the total land area, or about 10 or II million acres. At least 41⁄2 or 5 million acres of timber land were in farms in 1850. In 1910 about 3 million acres of the old timber land were still classed as farm land, and at least 42 million more of the old timber acreage must have been chiefly in the part called "improved", while the part of the old timber area in farms probably rose from about half in 1850 to threefourths in 1910. At the latter date a large proportion of it had been cleared and converted into "improved" land.

case of tracts owned by non-residents, but under the circumstances the rents charged were usually very small.3

TENURE STATISTICS FOR THE STATE AS A WHOLE

The census of 1880 showed the number of tenant farms in Illinois to be larger than in any other state of the Union, and considerable capital was made of the "eighty thousand tenants' then operating Illinois farms. In 1910, Illinois had 104,379 tenant farms, although her rank among the states in this respect had sunk to eighth." Texas, with 219,575 tenant farms, held first rank. At that date Illinois was second in the number of white tenants, having 103,761 against 170,970 in the state of Texas." Illinois stood eleventh in the percentage of all farms operated by tenants both in 1880 and in 1910. The percentage in Illinois in 1910 was 41.4, while in Mississippi, where the percentage was highest, it was 66.1. In the percentage of tenancy among white farmers, Illinois with 41.4 ranked sixth in 1910, Oklahoma with 55.8 holding first rank. In the farm acreage hired in 1910, Illinois stood third with 51.0 per cent. The percentage in

Delaware was 52.8 and in Oklahoma exceeded 60.

The table on the following page summarizes for the state as a whole the available statistics on farm tenure.

It will be observed that the number of farms decreased between 1880 and 1910, while the farm acreage increased. The increase in the average size of farms was from 123.8 in 1880 to

See Buck, S. J.: Pioneer Letters of Gersham Flagg, 35, 40, 46; Sheftel, Yetta, The Settlement of the Military Tract, Chapters I and II (in manuscript); Gerhard, Fred., Illinois as It Is, 404.

The rents were not low, because of the relative inferiority of the lands first taken up. As Walker points out, the lands first taken up, while now known to be chemically and otherwise inferior, were then economically superior. It was only when timber farm economy gave way to prairie farm economy that this economic superiority of the lands earliest occupied was lost.

4North American Review: CXLII, 52-67, 153-158, 246-253, 387-401. In 1890 the number of tenants in Illinois was the third largest among the states, and in 1900 it was fifth in order.

The same order held also in 1900, the only other date at which white

and colored tenants were reported separately.

"In 1890 the rank of Illinois was tenth, and in 1900, thirteenth.

In 1900 a similar comparison shows the rank of Illinois as eleventh. In 1900 only Delaware had a larger percentage of her farm lands rated under lease than Illinois. See above, p. 17, note 20.

11 Part owners and managers were not separately classified in the

129.1 in 1910.15 The number of tenant farms increased from 80,244 to 104,379, while the number of farms operated by owners, part owners and managers, decreased from 175,479 to 147,493.16 The percentage of all farms operated by tenants rose from 31.38 in 1880 to 41.44 in 1910. The percentage of the farm acreage operated by tenants proper was 43.59 in 1910, while that hired by part owners was 7.42. The percentage of farm land operated under lease in 1910 was, therefore, 51.01.

The following table will show more definitely how the changes in farm and land tenure varied from decade to decade. It appears that operation by owners decreased while operation by tenants increased during each decennial period. Between 1880 and 1890 the change lay in a decline in the number of owners rather than in an increase in the number of tenants. During the decade, 1890 to 1900, the reverse was the case. The number of farms operated by owners remained practically the same, while the number operated by tenants underwent a very large increase. During the decade, 1900 to 1910,

reports for these dates, and were included in most cases, perhaps, with owners rather than with tenants.

12 Census, 1910, VI, 412, 414; 1900, V, 308.

13 Author's calculation.

14 Unpublished data were received from the census bureau and modified to repair the omission of data from Carroll, Lee and Massac counties. The percentage of the land in the farms of part owners operated by them under lease and under deed was assumed to be the same as the corresponding percentages in the other 99 counties of the state.

15 See below, p. 87.

16 The number of persons in agriculture in Illinois (See above, p. 35) exceeded the number of farms by 180,571 in 1880, 189,453 in 1890, 196,863 in 1900 and 192,370 in 1910. For each 10,000 persons in Illinois agriculture there were 4139 of these persons without tenure in 1880, 4405 in 1890, 4271 in 1900 and 4334 in 1910. In a similar number there were 1839 tenants in 1880, 1902 in. 1890, 2240 in 1900 and 2350 in 1910. Likewise there were 4022 owners in 1880, 3693 in 1890, 3483 in 1900 and 3320 in 1910. In 1900 there were 746 part owners and 42 managers for each 10,000 persons engaged in agriculture in the state. In 1910 the figures were 851 and 54, respectively.

It appears, therefore, that the owners were the only persons in Illinois agriculture to decrease in relative numbers. Of the remaining classes, the ranks of the tenants received the largest relative number of accessions.